Jason Giambi’s renewed confidence was all over his face. Giambi played yesterday’s game unshaven, which is not the Steinbrenner way.

“I don’t think the Boss is going to complain after the series I had against Boston,” Giambi said.

With the Boss in attendance, Giambi’s first inning solo shot that squeaked just inside the right field pole was the only run in the Yankees’ 1-0 win over the Red Sox.

On the weekend, Giambi was 5-for-12 (.417) with two homers and three runs batted.

“The thing about Jason is that he doesn’t swing at bad pitches too often,” Derek Jeter said. “He is always getting on base. He swings at his pitches, when’s he hot, he’s killing them. It is probably as good as he has been since he has been here.”

Giambi’s comeback is startling. After looking lost – with his steroid testimony being leaked – he has found his swing. Giambi’s numbers are starting to jump off the statistics sheet. He is hitting .284 with 29 homers and 74 RBIs.

“It seems like all of his home runs have been in key situations,” Jeter said. “He has been swinging the bat well for a long time now. I think if you look back on the past couple of months nobody has probably gotten bigger hits than he has.”

His latest came with two outs in the first. Giambi received a 1-2 curveball from knuckleballer Tim Wakefield.

Recently, Wakefield had owned Giambi, holding him hitless in his previous 18-at-bats. So the choice of a curve was surprising since Giambi had never remembered seeing one from Wakefield before.

“I was shocked,” Giambi said.

The surprise selection didn’t fool Giambi, though. He saw the pitch “pop out” – his words – from Wakefield’s right hand. Giambi knew he hit it hard enough to reach the seats. He was only worried about keeping it fair.

The “Yankee Stadium homer” – also Giambi’s words – gave Randy Johnson the run he needed to best Wakefield.

“He was unhittable today,” Giambi said. “He made one bad pitch, basically. He left it just enough over the plate where I could get the bat head to it.”

Giambi was in the a good mood afterward, joking that the Boss wouldn’t mind his facial hair, candidly describing Wakefield’s lone error and determinedly looking forward to playing more ball next month.